Monday night (yes, Monday) was the 66th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on NBC and millions tuned in. Late Night host Seth Meyers gracefully took on the task of hosting. While the show might have been way too long, we found quite a few enjoyable moments that made us laugh, smile, and cry.
Seth Meyer’s Opening Monologue
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Hosting any awards show is tough, but Seth held his own. He didn’t need a musical number, or heavy gag-jokes, to win over the audience. Seth was his usual charming self, with great delivery when it came to a friendly jab, or two.
Beyonce Showed Up
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Oh you didn’t know, Queen Bey graced our screens last night? Amy Poehler AKA Beyonce, is half the reason we even tune into these awards shows. She’s either hosting, presenting, or just being fabulous, and that’s alright by us.
Jimmy Kimmel’s Matthew McConaughey Jokes
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“Matthew McConaughey doesn't even own a television. I happen to know for a fact that he traded his television for a conch shell full of weed.”
The "Billy On The Street" Skit Was Surprisingly Good
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"He's the host of the #Emmys this year!" "Um, Seth Macfarlane?" Haha.
— Yes/No Films (@yesnofilms) August 26, 2014
Usually, we're not too crazy about Billy On The Street, but his pre-taped skit with the Emmys' host, asking people on the street questions about the Emmys, was pretty hysterical.
Bryan Cranston’s Mustache
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The guest of honor.
This Epic Makeout Sesh
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Louis C.K.’s Simple, But Sweet Acceptance Speech
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Nothing long-winded, just straight to the point, yet sweet. He also made sure to point out that Sarah Baker was the star and reason he won.
Retta Live-Tweeting The Whole Night
What is happening right now?? #Emmys pic.twitter.com/s9MsTYMOrj
— Retta (@unfoRETTAble) August 26, 2014
Poehlsy!!!! #JustLikeBey #Emmys
— Retta (@unfoRETTAble) August 26, 2014
I love how Jessica Lange is killing this “Ima let these fools know I’m still helluh sexy” saunter to stage. #Emmys
— Retta (@unfoRETTAble) August 26, 2014
Retta, AKA Donna on Parks and Recreation and lover of live-tweeting, captured some of the most interesting moments from the night on Twitter.
When Joffery Confronted His Mother
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When They Gave George R.R. Martin A Typewriter
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And asked him to please write faster.
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He was immediately on the case.
Ricky Gervais Just Being Ricky Gervais
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"Now that is a television face. Not even really a television face. It's a Netflix face.” – Jimmy Kimmel
When Jimmy Fallon Seized The Day
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Gwen Stefani messed up Stephen Colbert’s name, so Jimmy assumed that meant the Emmy was up for grabs. We’d all have done the same if we were there.
Billy Crystal’s Touching Robin William’s Memoriam
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Which of these did you love the most? Tweet us your favorite moments from the night!
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Paramount via Everett Collection
We all know the saying about how you can't pick your relatives but you can pick your friends. Unfortunately, in high school, most people are limited to those other poor souls that are slouching through the halls to get from class to class.
Every teen movie made has seemingly adhered to some form of the cliques that occur in high school, those groupings based on looks, interests or intelligence that make up the social caste system. What if, however, you could make your own clique, using characters from those films that fit into those stereotypical profiles? It would certainly have made for a more entertaining high school experience, as well as at least one killer party. Who would we pick? Here's our choices...
VIEW GALLERY: The Ultimate Teen Movie High School Clique
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DreamWorks
For the bulk of every Rocky and Bullwinkle episode, moose and squirrel would engage in high concept escapades that satirized geopolitics, contemporary cinema, and the very fabrics of the human condition. With all of that to work with, there's no excuse for why the pair and their Soviet nemeses haven't gotten a decent movie adaptation. But the ingenious Mr. Peabody and his faithful boy Sherman are another story, intercut between Rocky and Bullwinkle segments to teach kids brief history lessons and toss in a nearly lethal dose of puns. Their stories and relationship were much simpler, which means that bringing their shtick to the big screen would entail a lot more invention — always risky when you're dealing with precious material.
For the most part, Mr. Peabody &amp; Sherman handles the regeneration of its heroes aptly, allowing for emotionally substance in their unique father-son relationship and all the difficulties inherent therein. The story is no subtle metaphor for the difficulties surrounding gay adoption, with society decreeing that a dog, no matter how hyper-intelligent, cannot be a suitable father. The central plot has Peabody hosting a party for a disapproving child services agent and the parents of a young girl with whom 7-year-old Sherman had a schoolyard spat, all in order to prove himself a suitable dad. Of course, the WABAC comes into play when the tots take it for a spin, forcing Peabody to rush to their rescue.
Getting down to personals, we also see the left brain-heavy Peabody struggle with being father Sherman deserves. The bulk of the emotional marks are hit as we learn just how much Peabody cares for Sherman, and just how hard it has been to accept that his only family is growing up and changing.
DreamWorks
But more successful than the new is the film's handling of the old — the material that Peabody and Sherman purists will adore. They travel back in time via the WABAC Machine to Ancient Egypt, the Renaissance, and the Trojan War, and 18th Century France, explaining the cultural backdrop and historical significance of the settings and characters they happen upon, all with that irreverent (but no longer racist) flare that the old cartoons enjoyed. And oh... the puns.
Mr. Peabody &amp; Sherman is a f**king treasure trove of some of the most amazingly bad puns in recent cinema. This effort alone will leave you in awe.
The film does unravel in its final act, bringing the science-fiction of time travel a little too close to the forefront and dropping the ball on a good deal of its emotional groundwork. What seemed to be substantial building blocks do not pay off in the way we might, as scholars of animated family cinema, have anticipated, leaving the movie with an unfinished feeling.
But all in all, it's a bright, compassionate, reasonably educational, and occasionally funny if not altogether worthy tribute to an old favorite. And since we don't have our own WABAC machine to return to a time of regularly scheduled Peabody and Sherman cartoons, this will do okay for now.
If nothing else, it's worth your time for the puns.
3/5
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The cast of FX's The Americans has officially been Jane Austen-fied. First, Matthew Rhys was cast as Mr. Darcy in Death Comes to Pemberley, BBC's three-part miniseries based on the P.D. James sequel to Austen's Pride And Prejudice. Now, Keri Russell stars in Austenland as a woman obsessed with Mr. Darcy who travels to look for love in Austenland, a British resort that recreates the Austen era.
JJ Feild, Jane Seymour, Bret McKenzie, Jennifer Coolidge, Georgia King and James Callis costar in the directorial debut of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre co-writer Jerusha Hess, adapted from the like-titled novel by Shannon Hale. The film, which premiered at Sundance in January, also marks Twilight author Stephenie Meyer's first independent producing venture.
For an English novelist who died in the early 1800s, Hollywood can't seem to get enough of Jane Austen. From multiple adaptations of Pride and Prejudice (how many Mr. Darcys can there possibly be?), to Sense and Sensibility and Emma... heck, the author's personal life has even been romanticized for the screen (see: Anne Hathaway in Becoming Jane). Watch the trailer for the latest tribute to Austen, then open its pages on August 16.
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Does the name Amitabh Bachchan ring a bell? Probably not, if you stick mostly to the major Hollywood releases that arrive in the United States. For those familiar with the world of Bollywood, he's one of the biggest stars on the planet, winning heaps of awards, starring in ever genre under the sun, and even earning himself a replica at London's Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. The man is a big deal.
This May, thanks to the worldly tastes of director Baz Luhrmann, audiences around the world will get a taste of Bachchan's skills in the flashy, 3D adaptation The Great Gatsby. So renowned is Bachchan, he's been paid tribute in the highest of movie marketing honors: a character poster!
Bachchan reacted the poster with the humblest of tweets (shot out to more than 5 million followers).
T 1092 -The poster of Great Gatsby, something I thought to be too presumptuousbut Baz Luhrmann insisted that it be done so there ..
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) April 28, 2013
Eaerlier in April, Bachchan wrote a personal essay on his blog detailing his experience working on Gatsby. It's another modest reaction.
In the post, the actor says that when he was first told that Luhrmann wanted to meet him for the role, he "thought it was a bad joke and ignored [it]." But, of course, it wasn't. "When it came repeatedly, I agreed. Baz Luhrmann had a couple of years ago, while travelling through India with a friend on a motorbike, visited me at my office.… Now as I waited to connect with him on Skype, I wondered whether he would remember my face and how we would converse. But the connection was good, the offer for doing a small role was accepted… and soon we were exchanging notes voices and intonations for the Jewish mafia head Meyer Wolfshiem in ‘20’s New York!"
With all of his experience, Bachchan recalls his time on the movie being one eye opening moment after another:
Came the time for the shoot at Sydney, and the apprehension grew… Baz called me over the first day to his home, a warm old world charmed structure, well maintained, with his polished motorbike and a Ganesh on his verandah… soon as we sat in his office section the others arrived – Leonardo, Toby and Joel Edgerton… The next day it was back to the studio and to the cute little cottage that was exclusively Baz Luhrmann’s work place. The entire cast was there. In a small but comfortable dining table all the main artists, about 15 of us sat down to an introduction of the film its niceties and how the atmosphere of the film would be. After a quick snack there, we shifted to the main floor, where the entire participants sat down to another reading with mikes and cameras recording all that was being spoken. Then we read again the entire script, asked to move about as we deemed fit. And then another reading, in the presence of a test audience, which sat about us quietly noting all that was being enacted. This completed, there was a question answer session. The test audience made remarks, the artists spoke about what they felt, Baz gave his inputs and then we wrapped for the day…
The sets were an eye opener for me. Grand and colossal in its presence and opulence… All about was like an imagination fructifying to reality. The sincerity of all that worked, including the main stars, the earnestness of the director his crew and the unimaginable detail of authenticity, all added up to an experience which when I returned to my room, could not fathom !!… I can say that in my 44 years and 180 films I had never worked in such a set up. Thank you Baz Luhrmann and his crew, and Warners for this experience.
So when you catch The Great Gatsby on May 10, watch out for Bachchan — the tip of an iceberg for a career that spans more than 180 films.
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
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"No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough."
On Thursday, famed film critic Roger Ebert passed away from cancer — a shock to the large audience that followed his critical advice on a daily basis. His death came only days after a blog post ran in the Chicago Sun-Times, from which the above quote is pulled, that laid out his plans for the future. Although thyroid cancer and surgery had distorted the face of the man America knew from his popular film review show At the Movies, it never slowed Ebert down. According to the post, he clocked 306 movie reviews last year — not counting his numerous other blog posts and feature articles. That was just the surface for Ebert, who fostered other voices and added to the conversation on every level imaginable.
And that's always been the case.
Prolificacy came naturally to Ebert. He was hired by the Sun-Times in 1967. While it was the place at which he ended his career, it was also the entry point for his emerging style and voice on pop culture. Browse Amazon.com and you'll find that Ebert is a credited author of over 116 books, including his nearly annual Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook series, the Great Movies series, Scorsese by Ebert (an inside look at a famed filmmaker), Awake in the Dark (a compilation of his best reviews), and the infamous Your Movie Sucks: a highly regarded tome of the late author's best pans. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for film criticism — an honor that's only been bestowed four times since.
RELATED: Hollywood Pays Tribute to Roger Ebert
Ebert didn't just pen "movie reviews" and cast them off into a sea of cineastes. He wrote for everyone, because he knew movies of all types could be enjoyed by everyone. It didn't involved pandering, but a loose style that felt conversational and relatable. His jump to television was logical: reading Ebert was like talking to Ebert. So why not bring the act to the small screen? Ebert, along with his longtime sparring partner Gene Siskel, started Sneak Previews in 1975 as part of Chicago's local public broadcasting station WTTW, and quickly became the highest rated show on the network. In '78 the show was picked up by PBS and renamed At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. In '86, it moved up to ABC and became Siskel &amp; Ebert &amp; The Movies. The popularity filled a void in pop culture conversation as entertainment — it wasn't a late night show, it didn't bow down to Hollywood a la the Oscars, it wasn't the local broadcast critics rounding out the nightly news, and it predated Entertainment Tonight and the E! network. Ebert and Siskel took the arguments people had at bars and put them on television. It was unheard of. It was captivating.
The ripple effect of At the Movies may be Ebert's most important contribution. A wordsmith at heart, his television show was the gateway drug for pop culture fanatics and budding movie critics to take a moment and think. As he described it, film was important because it was "the most serious of the mass arts" and that criticism mattered because the movies mattered. That's where his influence shows its face: sift through the millions of writings on the Internet and find a unique angle, a personal love letter, or an introspective account on any given film. Any given film — blockbusters, indies, foreign, homegrown, genres from any given point on the spectrum. They all say something, and Ebert not only started the conversations but promoted them. At the Movies was a starting point.
Ebert championed personal tastes. There wasn't a "right" or a "wrong," but there were movies he didn't like and movies he adored. He was a man whose picks for the best films of their respective years included The Battle of Aligers, Apocalypse Now, Malcolm X, the sci-fi noir Dark City, and Synecdoche, New York. He would return to movies years later and reconsider them, even "hypocritically" (for those taking every choice he made as written in stone) ranking films above others — you won't find any of the previously listed films 2012 Sight and Sound "Top 10 of all Time" list. And just because someone loved it, doesn't mean he had to either. Roger Ebert hated Armageddon. Anyone who wonders why should read his review.
One of the major gripes against filmmakers is, "Why don't you try and make a movie?" as if it's necessary to know what goes into making a film to publicly wrestle, and occasionally knock, the ideas presented in one. While unnecessary, Ebert did that too. He penned Russ Meyer's shlocky 1970 flick Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, reviled at the time but looked back as a twisted piece of pop art. While his "filmmaking career" didn't pan out, Ebert remained steadfast in his role as an advocate for the arts. He wrote on the subjects that fascinated him, contributed to commentaries on DVD releases (he wasn't joking about loving Dark City), and in the final years of his life, blogged about the smaller films that needed a boost while each week delivering insight into whatever was flooding the multiplexes. After his thyroid cancer and an eventual hip fracture that impacted his ability to walk, he continued to attend the Sundance Film Festival, a pastime for the film critic who helped turn the fest into what it is today.
RELATED: Howard Stern Has a Few More Words for Ebert
There's no doubt that if Ebert had been able to vocalize his thoughts in later years, we would have seen more divisive, inspiring opinions from the critic. Vincent Gallo — whose Brown Bunny Ebert notoriously took to task for what felt like years after its debut at the Cannes Film Festival — is among the many to clash with the critic, but in the end, both filmmaker and critic were chasing the same goal. They wanted people to see and respect movies. Ebert didn't want to hate a movie, but more importantly, he didn't want people to misunderstand movies. He was ready to defend, as in the case of Better Luck Tomorrow's Sundance premiere:
At the Movies lost traction over the years, with the eventual loss of Gene Siskel and many alternatives to the show popping up on all mediums. Amazingly, that never felt like a hurdle for Ebert, even when At the Movies ended with Richard Roeper as cohost (and its short-lived revival produced by Ebert a few years later). Ebert launched his ship into the swirling microcosm of the Internet with little turbulence. He was a blogger at heart, ready to lay down thoughts on whatever topic he felt like. The politics of George W. Bush? Cooking? Video games? The last topic was one of his greatest conversation starters from the web: Ebert didn't think video games were art. He made it loud and clear. He started a vicious Internet flame war. He was pleasant the entire time. (And he even jokes in his final post about his future with the medium, supposedly working on an At the Movies mobile game app, that he was ready to argue the artistic authenticity of whenever people were ready.)
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People, both in Hollywood and those who never met him, loved Roger Ebert. He's been paid respects in all forms — few could help spoofing his rimmed glasses and "two thumbs up" catchphrase out of love, even Saturday morning cartoons. In 1997, capitalizing on his rare fame and support form his audience, Ebert began "Ebertfest," his own film festival that played host to the "under-appreciated" films of the world, past and present. Fans gathered from across the globe to see Ebert's picks. Even Patton Oswalt, upon hearing of Ebert's death, noted that missing Ebertfest was a missed opportunity:
What I wrote when I had to cancel my EbertFest appearance.Now it's one of my biggest regrets (link fixed):bit.ly/16tgyAT
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) April 4, 2013
Enthusiasm was key to Ebert's legacy. In the past, critics have pointed to his work as the "McDonald's" of film criticism, quick and easy. But that's mistaking Ebert's style for pandering. Instead, his work made the heady concepts of dramatic theory into talking points that could educate anyone's own cinematic vocabulary. A kid who spends every summer afternoon watching whatever the local theater is playing or scanning the cable airwaves or something remotely captivating was (will still be?) provoked by Ebert's short but sweet reviews. They may push that kid to seek out "films," try their hand at writing a "review," or watch a movie and look past its surface elements to "understand what they mean." Who is Frank Capra and why is Ebert namedropping him in a conversation on Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd's Trading Places? Seed planted.
Pop culture owes Roger Ebert for making demands, and anyone who takes in a movie, a TV show, a video game, a book, anything with an ounce of creativity put into it owes him for kicking them in the butt and pushing them to take it seriously. Ebert is no longer with us, but his dreams will be forever.
"So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I'll see you at the movies."
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Denver Post/Getty Images]

Guard your orifices!
The Host may be a CW-style variation of it, but Stephenie Meyer's story of alien Souls invading the Earth follows a long and rich sci-fi tradition: that of militant extraterrestrials violently taking over human bodies. The mechanics of these body intrusions may vary — some implant themselves in the ears, others in the GI tract, others in the womb — but one thing is clear. These aliens really, really want to get up and close and personal with humans, with varying degrees of discomfort for the host.
Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Host’ Vs. Bong Joon-ho’s ‘The Host’: A Soul/Seoul Connection?
So to help you avoid implantation yourself, we've given you an anatomical breakdown of where exactly you can find each type of invader in a typical human body. Sharpen your scalpels and check out this infographic:
Click on the image above for to get a larger view. And start taking notes from our handy key. Knowledge is your best defense!
1. Brain: Compared to some of these others, the way the Souls take over human bodies in The Host is pretty gentle. Via a surgical slit in the back of the neck, a Soul — a little light-up creature that looks like the plasma balls at a science museum you liked to touch when you were a kid — enters your nervous system and moves toward the neocortex, assuming all cognitive functions and erasing the personality of its host.
2. Nose: Technically, the tiny aliens in Meet Dave have built a spaceship that looks and sounds exactly like a human being (or at least a really awkward Eddie Murphy). They use its eyes as viewports, its mouth as a gangplank, and when they need to make a really rapid exit they get themselves snorted out of its nose. The scary thing, is that they're small enough to invade the noses of actual humans as well. Yeah, you might want to get that lingering sinus infection checked out...
‘The Host’: Let’s Talk About That Ending — SPOILERS
3. Ears: Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) used a Ceti Eel to extract information from Commander Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Captain Tyrell (Paul Winfield) in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The eel, a native of barren wasteland Ceti Alpha V, burrows into a human's ear and all the way into his or her brain. Once there, it renders the host completely vulnerable to suggestion. Meaning that Khan could tell Chekov and Tyrell exactly what he'd want them to do, and they would do it no matter what.
4. Mouth: Time-traveling Romulan freighter captain Nero (Eric Bana) in 2009's Star Trek was a kindred spirit of Khan in terms of using alien parasites to bend human prisoners to his will. His Centaurian slug, however, enters its host through the mouth, then tunnels in toward the brain stem. Nero was able to use one to get Capt. Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to reveal all of Starfleet's defense codes.
5. Chest: The parasitic aliens of LV-423 in Alien begin their takeover of the human body by wrapping their tentacles around a person's head and hugging the face. When it suddenly departs, you think you're free. But actually it's deposited an egg inside you that will incubate in your chest cavity, until suddenly it bursts out when you're chillin' with your space-trucker friends.
6. Womb: Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) had unprotected sex with her lover Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green) while exploring a mysterious alien world. So the possibility of getting pregnant was already very real. But what she didn't realize was that Charlie had been infected with an extraterrestrial virus that was rewriting his genetic code. And so he didn't impregnate her with a human child but with a rapidly growing alien parasite that lodged in her womb. Not many would have the fortitude to perform a C-section on herself to abort this unwanted pregnancy like Dr. Shaw did.
7. Hand: Okay, this isn't really an extraterrestrial parasite, but it is a condition known as "Alien Hand Syndrome," in which a person can't control the actions of their limbs. In the case of Dr. Strangelove that meant his hand kept spontaneously giving the fascist salute, which we suspect may have been a Freudian slip in mime form for the ex-Nazi scientist. Laughs aside, it is a real condition. Think of it like a much more embarrassing version of "restless leg syndrome," if anything can be more embarassing than "restless leg syndrome."
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
[Photo Credit: Hollywood.com Illustration]
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This article contains mild spoilers for The Host.
Underneath The Host's schmaltzy romance and blinding shine of silver sports cars lies a challenging theme of identity and existence, both Earthly and beyond. The concepts are deepened with a little background information: the movie is based on a book of the same name by Stephenie Meyer, best known for penning the Twilight series. Meyer is also one of the most successful authors to come out of the Mormon faith. Viewed through a lens of the uniquely American religion, The Host ends up more of a refraction of those beliefs than anything found in her vampiric romance saga.
Some connections are superficial: in the film, the human race is taken over by body-snatching aliens and forced to go into hiding. The "resistance" dwells in caves, living off their stored food and underground fields of wheat. The world of The Host may revolve around a doomsday scenario, but it bears striking resemblance to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most notably, the Church practices food storage and the image of grain features prominently in The Book of Mormon (according to Robert R. Bennett of the Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, there are more than 28 references to grain in the Book of Mormon). Meyer tells us that it was Host director Andrew Niccol who pushed for the inclusion of wheat because he "really liked the visual" and that any LDS connection is total coincidence. But even persons of the Mormon faith see the roots of her science fiction tale.
"There were many LDS/Mormon overtones on gender and race embedded in the Twilight series, but The Host seems more connected to to the Mormon faith to me," says Joanna Brooks, a senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches. According to Brooks, The Host's broader strokes — from the alien "Souls" (terminology from Meyer's original text) entering the body of humans to the possible interplanetary afterlife suggested by the film's conclusion — explore foundational Mormon doctrine.
Brooks notes that Mormon theology teaches that before the souls of human beings come to this life, spirits live in a preexistence with God. She describes it as a "pre-heaven." But in that time before life on Earth, one-third of the souls that "pre-existed" were cast out of the presence of God and followed Lucifer instead of finding bodies on Earth. There have also been suggestions that the slighted souls attempt to intervene with the affairs of the world. "Sometimes, you will hear as folk doctrine, the idea that this one-third are so envious that they will try and take over," Brooks says. "But the teaching that there were a large number of spirits that never made it to Earth who might like to is actually doctrine."
RELATED: Let's Talk About That Crazy Ending of 'The Host'— Spoilers
The blurry line between doctrine and Mormon folklore, a visible sign that the 19th century religion continues to evolve, is at the heart of The Host. In the end of the film, the main character Wanda (an alien inhabiting the body of a human woman, Melanie) decides to opt out of being transplanted to a spaceship and sent to another planet, choosing instead to be removed from Melanie's body and "die." This strikes Brooks as a reference to Kolob, the thing closest to the dwelling place of God. It's another Mormon story that has slowly become myth in the grand tapestry of beliefs. Other Mormon writings took the concept a step further — and sound more like the basis of The Host. "Even our most speculative theologians in the 19th century inferred that there could be other universes where other divine beings with a parallel to God may also have dominion," Brooks says. "A cosmological consciousness is part of the Mormon tradition."
Meyers isn't the only Mormon science fiction writer to look to her religion for inspiration. Nathaniel Givens, blogger for popular Mormon site Times And Seasons, cites Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card, who reworked the history of Joseph Smith, founder of Latter Day Saint Movement, for his book The Seventh Son, and touches on Mormon themes in the Ender's sequel Speaker for the Dead. Other prominent Mormon sci-fi writers include Glen A. Larson, whose show Battlestar Galactica includes a place called "Kobol," and fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who took over the poplar Wheel of Time series. For Givens, The Book of Mormon, unlike other religious texts, considers all sides of the universe, creating a faith that nurtures science fiction writing.
"Since Mormonism also makes doctrinal claims that go well outside of most religions (for example, about what happens before and after this mortal life) and also has long believed in compatibility between science and religion, the direction that Mormons take with their individual speculation is very compatible with sci-fi," Givens says. The blogger points to American sci-fi writer Pamela Sargent, who described science fiction as "the literature of ideas," and believes that a large part of Mormon practice is working out big ideas that have to do with how we got where we are and where we might get where we're going. "If Mormons want to try and dig deeper and understand the meaning behind or connections between elements of official Mormon doctrine, then that becomes sort of their own responsibility," he says. "So there's just this deep culture of amateur theology in Mormonism; we spend a lot of time just trying to figure out how things might work, theologically."
Givens notes that he does not believe either Meyer or Scott Card depict things they already believe, aligning with Meyer's retort that The Host isn't an overtly Mormon film. There's a presumption to how faith-based works operate — a "preachy" film can steer larger audiences away — and that's not The Host. Instead, Meyer's adaptation takes a stab at considering, challenging, and working out Mormon ideas. "It's all about questions, not answers, and Mormonism is a religion that — in terms of structure — tends to create a lot of questioning people," Givens says. "It also creates a lot of very conformist people, too, don't get me wrong. That's just a tension that exists within the community."
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A speculation-friendly religion is bound to divide, both between sects of believers and those on the outside looking in. As a successful Mormon figure, Meyer has come under predictable heat, and Givens says he knows just as many Mormons who are proud of Meyer's success as there are naysayers of her work. He says that the "Mormon depiction" in Twilight has caused issues with the perception of members of the faith, painting them as "sex-obsessed." On the other end of the spectrum is scrutiny over Meyer's ability to be a progressive fiction writer and commit to her faith. In a recent article, Brooks defended Meyer's ability to be a Mormon feminist, equating her with Harriet Beecher Stowe in her ability to employ saccharine drama and still tell deeply involved, human stories. Add that all to the science fiction of The Host and you have a layered individual that seems to exemplify what Mormonism strives to be about.
For Givens, sci-fi ruminations like The Host, that wrestle with the oldest ideas of Latter-day Saints, don't interfere with the ability to take Mormon doctrine seriously. To him, a work like The Host can live side by side with The Book of Mormon. "I think that the historical claims of the religion are actually very important," he says. "I understand that there are a lot of Mormons who, for example, would like to value and treasure The Book of Mormon as a purely spiritual document without actually believing the stories it tells or the idea that there were really gold plates that Joseph Smith translated. I respect that, but that's just not my position. And, for me at least, I don't think that the sci-fi causes problems on that level."
Givens also acknowledges the tension created by the difficulty Mormonism faces when being accepted by modern thought. But he doesn't believe that a movie like The Host pulls the carpet from under believers. Meyer may try to keep her faith-related questions out of the publicity circle, but even if her work is perceived by audiences as religiously rooted, introducing the questioning can be positive. "It's hard to carve out a kind of literal idea of the sacred in this current culture, and I think that's also a tension that you see Mormon authors working out in their work," he says. "So, for me at least, I think the tension just spurs more creativity and art, rather than necessarily detracting from the faith."
For Brooks, Meyer spins stories from Mormon faith with the right sensibilities: part traditional, part imaginative. "One of the defining features of Mormon culture is that we are exceptionally pragmatic," she says. "This comes from our roots in the rural west and our penchant for large families. At the same time, we are a people with an extremely rich speculative theology. To live with that balance is to be a Mormon."
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Open Road]
Additional reporting by Jordan Hoffman
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Thanks to a slow start and faithfulness to the navel-gazing source material, Stephenie Meyer and the film adaptations of her Twilight series became a whipping boy for self-respecting moviegoers. It's too bad — anyone who turned their noses at the later entries of the mega-succesful franchise missed some of the craziest camp since John Waters. That gave us hope when it came to the first non-Twilight Meyer adaptation: The Host, a romantic twist on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hope is quickly dashed only minutes into the latest from director Andrew Niccols (GATTACA, In Time), as The Host struggles with the same on-the-nose, emotional dizziness that plagued the pre-Breaking Dawn movies in the vampire saga.
Actually, it might be worse.
Whereas Twilight relied on dead-eyed gazing to convey the courtship between Bella and Edward, The Host actively works to externalize the inner monologue, spending most of the movie inside the head of its split-personality main character. Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) was a regular Southern belle before Earth was invaded by a parasitic race of aliens known as "Souls." The planet is quickly taken over by the amoeba-like critters, who inhabit the bodies of humans in hopes of correcting their imperfect tendencies. No luck, though — when Melanie is eventually captured by "Seekers," a jumpsuit-wearing police force who help new arrivals find host bodies and crack down on the rebellious few without aliens in their skulls, she goes down fighting. A Soul known as "Wanderer" is placed inside of her, but against all odds, Melanie's consciousness remains.
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The two get off to a bumpy start, but before too long, Melanie has Wanderer empathizing with the human Resistance. She also feels guilty for taking over her host's life, and decides to right the wrong by trekking out into the desert to reunite Melanie with the ones she loves. Like his past films, Niccols intricately builds the world of The Host. As Melanie and Wanderer hit the road like a Jekkyl and Hyde version of Thelma &amp; Louise, we get a taste for the new Earth designed by the Souls. It's basically communism: everything is shared, everything is free, and everyone lives in harmony (minus the pesky humans who refuse to share their headspace with a glowing amoeba from outer space). The world of the Souls is perfect, and Wanderer's awakening to the idea that even utopias have their downsides is an intriguing arc.
But as Niccols and Meyer are both familiar with, a well-constructed setting and concept only goes so far. Ronan is an actress with broad range (see: Hanna) and elegant delivery. Here, her subtle work is bogged down by grating voiceover and a demand to react like a deer in headlights. The two personalities spend most of the film bickering at one another, Ronan's rage-filled Southern twang blaring over her wide-eyed, observational approach to Wanderer. When they arrive at the desert cave retreat of the Resistance, The Host's voiceover problem reaches crippling levels. Turns out, Melanie had a boyfriend, Jared (Max Irons), before being captured by Seekers. He's hanging with her uncle Jeb (William Hurt) in the caves, and less than enthused by Melanie's extraterrestrial companion. Wanderer — renamed "Wanda" to fit in with the normals — is chastised by Melanie for even speaking to Jared, so she retreats into the arms of Ian (Jake Abel). Yes, when Earth is overrun with alien beings and the last of the human race struggles to stay hidden from Seekers, there is still room for a romantic quadrangle... between two interchangeable hunks, an alien impersonating a human, and a disconnected voice.
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The movie is littered with missed opportunities, seemingly uninterested in diving into the character-driven side of the elaborate science fiction ideas it is built upon. Hurt does an impressive job turning the leader of the Resistance into a broken down survivor of the massacre, but his willingness to accept Wanderer into his society is just lazy storytelling. Likewise, the Seekers have their own conflicted figurehead: Diane Kruger's nameless hunter. Unlike her Soul coworkers, she has a thirst for human blood. She wants to wipe them out instead of aid them. It's a lively twist that's only addressed two-thirds into the movie, after Kruger has spent most of her screentime driving a shiny sports car and scanning mouton vistas with her bright blue Seeker eyes.
There are moments that impress. Niccols briefly opens up the scope of the movie by throwing in an adeptly shot car chase. The designs of the Resistance's hideout and the Seeker technology are all precise and culled from logic. An intricate mirror system that directs sunlight down to an underground field of wheat — brilliant! But in the end, The Host is like its central character: a vacant husk, completely bewildered inside and out, with the faint sound of a good idea trying to scream its way through. Niccols and Meyer's team up isn't a terrible movie, it's a meandering one. The Souls might be right to invade us — we could use a bit of direction.
2/5
What do you think? Tell Matt Patches directly on Twitter @misterpatches and read more of his reviews on Rotten Tomatoes!
[Photo Credit: Open Roads Films]
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What if everything you love was taken from you in the blink of an eye? The next epic love story from Stephenie Meyer, The Host, is about an alien invasion that threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories. Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) must risk everything to protect the people she cares most about — Jared (Max Irons), Ian (Jake Abel), her brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury) and her Uncle Jeb (William Hurt), proving that love can conquer all in a dangerous new world.
RELATED: Watch Hollywood.com's 'Host' TV Spot Exclusive
Hollywood.com's partners over at Celebuzz will be hosting the exclusive live webcast of the red carpet premiere of Meyer's new film The Host. On Tuesday, March 19, beginning at 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT, Celebuzz will be speaking with The Host stars Ronan, Irons, Abel, and Diane Kruger, as well as the mind behind the story, Meyer herself, among other special guests.
Fans can even get their questions about the movie answered by the cast live on-air and be entered to win prizes by tweeting to Celebuzz using the hashtag #TheHostLive.
Watch all the action on the red carpet, streaming live from the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, right here:
The Host hits theaters March 29, 2013.
Follow Sydney on Twitter: @SydneyBucksbaum
[Photo Credit: Alan Markfield/Open Road Films]
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